Tesla Lays Off 10% Of Its Workforce

Tesla this week announced a 10% reduction in its workforce, globally. This, perhaps is due to challenging economic times at the company owing to its 31% stock price decline since the start of the year. The cut affects about 14,000 people. Elon Musk empathized with those being let go and said its ver...

Jamie Dimon Sells $183 Million Worth of JPMorgan Stock

Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan, Mr. Jamie Dimon has been selling company stock lately. In February, Mr. Dimon sold 800,000 shares valued at about $150 million. This was the first time he sold JPMorgan stock since he became CEO some 19 years ago. This Monday, he sold another $33 million worth of stocks...

Biden Administration Forgives $7.4 Billion of Student Debt

The Biden administration this week announced the cancellation of another $7.4 billion of student debt. This follows previous cancellations the administration had announced, bringing its year-to-date student debt cancelled to $153 billion. The total student debt cancelled to date is estimated to equa...

Softbank Hopes To Repeat Alibaba’s Success With It’s AI Investments

It was in 2000 when Softbank’s chairman, Masayoshi Son, saw fire in the eyes of Jack Ma and decided to back Ma’s one year old startup, Alibaba, with a $20 million investment. Fast-forward 23 years later, Alibaba became one of Son’s most profitable investments realizing over $72 bil...

Google and Meta To Build Their Own AI Chips

In light of the increasing demand for NVIDIA’s AI chips, technology companies are experiencing chip shortages to support their operations and applications. To this end, Google and Meta are reportedly building their own AI chips to power their inhouse applications. Granted, their chips won&rsqu...

Tesla To Open New Factory In India

In a post on X, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced he’ll be visiting India the week of April 22, to meet with prime minister Modi to discuss setting up a Tesla gigafactory and investments of about $2-$3 billion. Following a Tesla lobby, India agreed to lower import taxes on some electric vehicles f...

Barclays Analysts Start Covering Oil & Energy Stocks Again

Analysts at Barclays bank have again begun covering oil & gas stocks, sending a message to climate activist investors and other anti-fossil fuel players that oil & gas is still a vital world commodity and is here to stay. The coverage includes stocks of 18 oil & energy companies, includi...

SLB Announces Acquisition of ChampionX For $7.8 Billion

SLB, the energy technology and energy services company announced it is acquiring ChampionX in an all-stock transaction valued at $7.8 billion. The acquisition further enhances and strengthens SLB’s position as a global leader and provider of completions, production, reservoir recovery, and art...

Reddit Files For IPO

Reddit, the 19-year-old media company finally filed for its Initial Public Offering (IPO) with the New York Stock Exchange. The IPO was a success with shares rising as much as 70% on day one of trading, valuing the company at over $9.5 billion. Reddit is the first social media company to go public i...

Chevron to Close Two Biodiesel Plants

Chevron Renewable Energy Group, a subsidiary of Chevron Corp., has announced plans to shut down two of its biodiesel production plants in the US, as a result of unfavorable or challenging market conditions. The plants are located in Ralston, Iowa, and Madison, Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin plant has b...

Energy Transition Not Working, Aramco CEO

The energy transition is visibly failing, said the CEO of Saudi Aramco, Mr. Amin Nasser, during the 2024 CERAWEEK conference in Houston, Texas. Contrary to proponents who postulate peak oil demand will arrive by 2030, Mr. Nasser said peak oil demand is unlikely to occur anytime soon, let alone by 20...

Tire Manufacturers Could See Increase In Demand Due To EVs

Electric Vehicle (EV) tires cost about 50% more than regular internal combustion car tires. Additionally, they suffer quicker degradation and wear & tear because of the weight of EVs, and would require more frequent replacements. Consequently, tire manufacturers could see an uptick in tire deman...

US Energy Giants Make Largest Profit in Decades

US Energy giants, ExxonMobil & Chevron last year 2023 reported net incomes of $36 Billion and $21 Billion respectively, which is the highest they have made in decades, owing to strong oil demand post-pandemic. This puts them amongst the US’ most profitable companies, including Apple, Googl...

Walmart Buys TV Maker Vizio For $2.3 Billion

Walmart has agreed to purchase TV maker Vizio for $2.3 Billion. Walmart is reportedly said to be particularly interested in expanding its advertisement business with the acquisition. Walmart’s ad business is reported to have higher profit margins than its groceries business. Increased revenues...

Broadcom Sells Computing Division to KKR For $4 Billion

Private equity giant KKR has reportedly acquired Broadcom’s end-user computing unit in a deal valued at $4 Billion. This is an effort by Broadcom to streamline its operations and be more efficient, especially following its $69B acquisition of VMware last year.

Legal advisers for KKR are Sim...